Please read the message below which was first sent as an email from HM Executive Vice President Roberta Schwartz on June 12, 2023:
As the number of patients with COVID-19 continues to drop we are easing our masking requirements even further. While we are relaxing the restrictions, we must also keep protecting our most vulnerable patients. We hope the new recommendations are welcome news for you and our patients. Always keep in mind that you should feel free to wear a mask at work even if it is not required. Here’s an interesting story, and study, about Americans and COVID-19 immunity right now.
New guidelines
- Physicians, staff and patients are no longer required to wear a mask in clinics, except in the following situations:
- Masks should be worn while caring for patients who are known to be immunocompromised (see below for details) or are experiencing respiratory symptoms.
- Masks should be provided to arriving clinic patients who have respiratory symptoms. If the illness is suspected or confirmed to be related to an airborne pathogen the staff and physician should wear N95 respirators.
- N95 respirators, as recommended by the CDC, should be worn when caring for patients who are known or suspected to have COVID-19, or any other airborne disease.
- In HM hospitals:
- Masks should continue to be worn in all designated transplant units and floors.
- Masks should continue to be worn in all oncology designated units, including OP infusion centers.
- In patient care areas not designated as transplant or oncology, masking for staff is still required while caring for immunocompromised patients on their units or departments.
- Staff should continue to follow isolation practices for all patients suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19.
Who is considered immunocompromised:
- Patients on chemotherapy for cancer and hematological malignancies.
- Patients with advanced or untreated HIV infection with CD4 T lymphocyte count<200
- Patients with combined primary immunodeficiency disorder (e.g., DiGeorge syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome)
- Patients with congenital immunodeficiency disorders.
- Patients on prednisone >20mg/day (or equivalent of other steroids) for more than 14 days.
- Patients actively being treated with alkylating agents, antimetabolites, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers, and other biologic agents that are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory.
- Patients who are post allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant within the past two years or taking immunosuppression therapy.
- Patients who are post solid organ transplant (SOT) within the past year.
- Patients who have been treated for rejection of SOT in the last six months.
- Neutropenic patients, defined as at least two separate days with ANC and/or WBC values<500 cells/mm3 collected within a 7-day period.
- Patients with prolonged neutropenia of ≥ 14 days, defined as 14 or more days with ANC and/or WBC values <500 cells/mm3.
- Hematologic malignancies associated with poor responses to COVID-19 vaccines regardless of current treatment status (e.g., chronic lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, acute leukemia).
Roberta L. Schwartz
Executive Vice President
Chief Innovation Officer
Houston Methodist Hospital
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